Hearing continues on proposed Village rental property

CYNDI MURRAY PHOTO | The proposal would allow the construction of a second home on this Fifth Avenue property.

The Greenport Village Zoning Board of Appeals will hold another public hearing Thursday on a Shelter Island contractor’s controversial plan to build a second rental house on property he owns on Fifth Avenue in the village.

James Olinkiewicz has filed a site plan with the Village of Greenport to subdivide his property and build a two-story rental house with three bedrooms on each floor within a few hundred feet of an identical multi-family rental house he already owns on the property. The new lot would be about 6,500 square feet, short of the village’s minimum lot-size requirement of 7,500 square feet. Since the proposed lot size is smaller than what village code permits, he is required to receive a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals before the Planning Board can make a final decision on the application.

Meanwhile, neighbors who live along Fifth Avenue and have become frustrated by the increasing number of rental properties along the block have banded together in opposition to the proposal. They appeared at recent Planning Board and ZBA meetings to speak out against the plan.